Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 31b-35; Exodus12:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Tonight’s service is for many the most significant of the year. Tonight we mark the Institution of the Lord’s Supper and we are reminded of the “servant-hood” of Jesus as he washes his disciples’ feet. It wasn’t until we started worshipping here at Saint George’s just over five years ago that I experienced for myself just what this service actually means. The stripping of the sanctuary at the close of tonight’s service, and the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose is for me one of the most powerful moments in the church calendar.

The reading we have just heard from John’s gospel is firmly anchored in love. Everything that it speaks of comes from the very heart of Jesus. Looking at this passage we get a glimpse of the very essence of God, for God IS love. We began this week with Jesus sharing a meal with Mary and Martha, and saw Mary anoint his feet with the most expensive perfume. We come to a close at another meal, the final occasion when all the disciples will be together with Jesus and one another. Having lived and shared their lives together over the years they would have had great ties of brotherhood, as well as at times, moments of intense rivalry. Yet here they were sitting down together to commemorate the Passover meal. Though John’s gospel itself does not actually spell it out, if we look at the other three gospels it is clear that this is also the same event as that which inaugurated the Lord’s Supper.

We read of a remarkable reversal of position. Jesus knew that his time on earth was coming to an end, and he uses this last meal with his disciples as an occasion to demonstrate the reality of what he was all about. He gets up, pours water into a basin and proceeds to wash the disciples stinking feet. Peter, being characteristically forthright is outraged by this bizarre reversal of roles. If there is any foot washing to be done here, surely it should be the other way round? What on earth was going on?  Jesus responds by saying, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand. Unless I wash you, you have no share with me”, (Jn 13:7-8). He was providing them with a model by which to live their lives. By taking upon himself the role of a servant he visibly displays his love for his disciples. Even though he knows that the hour of his betrayal was almost upon him, right at this moment his focus was upon providing a perfect model of humbleness and servant-hood to his disciples.

It must have been the most deeply touching moments that the disciples had shared with him. How must they have felt to see their Lord on his knees washing their feet? Probably pretty confused at first, but they also had to let their sense of pride go too. Again, looking back to Peter, who says, “You will never wash my feet” (Jn 13:8), there may be some sense of wanting to keep things in the correct order. There was certain etiquette to behaviour, and this broke that etiquette right down. But then, as we read throughout the gospels anyway.....Jesus was hardly a stickler for the rules!

As I mentioned at the beginning his foot-washing was an act of love. Knowing that his time remaining was limited Jesus gave the disciples a “new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). It is the entire gospel message summed up in one word....LOVE. Love for one another as well as for God. Without love the words of Christ would simply not be worth the paper they are written on.

When we share in the Eucharist tonight we are sharing with one another the ultimate act of love that God has given to us. We share in the context of community what it means to take of Christ’s body and blood. We cannot truly love in isolation, as though we are in a kind of spiritual bubble. It is something that requires us to develop a relationship with others in order to flourish and grow. The depth of love that god has for us is the perfect model by which we can aspire to love others as he has loved us. Out of our own experience of God’s love for us we can reflect that love back to God as well as to others.....a sort of mirror if you like.

And we experience that love most fully in the Eucharist or whatever other name you choose to call it by, Holy Communion, The Lord’s Supper or The Breaking of Bread. Jesus is present in a very real and powerful way as he gives of himself to us. By partaking of him in this sacrament we in a sense become Jesus to others. In our final session of the Lent course we heard a quote from the American theologian Jim Wallis. He said:

“We break the bread and we pour the wine, drink the wine-then we go out in the world and we BECOME the bread and the wine. We BECOME that sacrament in the world. We celebrate and then we go out and we enact that sacrament in the way we live our lives in the world”.

It is through Christ within us.....each and every one of us, that others are able to experience the depth of love and grace that he has for all. We are the hands, the feet, and the body of Christ. When people look at us they see hopefully, a community of people who are very far from perfect, but who seek as much as we can to stand up for the weak, speak out for the oppressed and feed the hungry.

It is worth remembering the words of John in one of his letters:

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for us. (1 John 4 : 7-10)

John reminds us that it is through God reaching out to us in love, and firmly rooting the sacrifice of Jesus as something borne out of that love that we are able to be reconciled to God. The whole idea of the atonement by which we are reconciled through Jesus comes purely out of his endless love. It is God reaching out to us in divine love, rather than us reaching out to God that is the key here. Only through his love are we able to truly know what it is to live because when we reach out to others in love they may see something (even if it only a small glimmer) of God in us.

So, as we partake of our Lord’s body and blood this evening, and as we allow him to wash our feet.....may we do so in the full knowledge, and deepest gratitude that we do so because he first loved us. And may we sit with him, even if only for an hour or so in the garden as we await the terrible events of tomorrow, but let us not forget that Sunday is only just around the corner.

AMEN